


Symbiosis

by 29_WhiteLilies



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Gen, Past Relationship(s), Past Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-04-27 18:17:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14431365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/29_WhiteLilies/pseuds/29_WhiteLilies
Summary: Alice Smith and FP Jones were two kids from broken homes, one ruled by an absent drunk, the other by a raging drunk. One-shot series in chronological order about growing up on the wrong side of the train tracks.Chapter 1:Alice spots one last free seat at the far side of the classroom. The boy next to the empty seat looks vaguely familiar. His hair is dark and he is staring at the blank table in front of him. Nobody is taking notice of him, and if he is taking notice of his surroundings, he certainly isn't showing it. That is when Alice sees his old, worn leather backpack that looks very similar to her own. Between all the colorful bags the other kids brought with them, their bags look even sadder and more out of place. A tiny smile is tugging at her lips.Yes. This is where she is meant to sit.WARNING: Rating will eventually change!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First attempt at something that will have multiple chapters... Wish me luck... ;)
> 
> Update: Yes, I did just edit this whole thing because I realized that I want it to be in present tense... xD

Her mother sighs as Alice twirls like she has told her to do. The blouse and skirt the girl is wearing are slightly loose on her skinny eleven-year-old frame and the collar still refuses to look white, even after some serious scrubbing and a few consecutive washes. Despite all of that, it is still the best option they have for Alice’s first day at Riverdale Middle School.

“Promise me that you won’t get any stains on your clothes on your way home. And no climbing over fences, okay? This thing will have to stay whole for a while…” Judy Smith tells her daughter in her usual measured tone and hands Alice a worn, old leather backpack. 

“Say goodbye to your father. We have to get going.”

Alice nods and quickly makes her way into the living room, where her father is sitting in his usual chair, looking out of the window. She automatically holds her breath so she won’t inhale the smell of booze that lingers around him when she leans in and presses a chick kiss to his stubbly cheek.

“Goodbye Dad!” 

This weird smell was something Alice learned to associate with her father in recent months. Bill Smith was let go from his secure factory job shortly after Alice’s birth. A younger man and a few machines he did not understand took over the work of his entire department and Bill, after years of losing job after job and months of being rejected by every possible employer in the area, had recently relocated his dismayed wife and tiny daughter to the Sunnyside trailer park on the wrong side of the Riverdale train tracks, finally given in to the little comfort cheap booze managed to give him and started spending days and nights in the old armchair that had come with the even older trailer.

“Come on, Alice! I need to be on time for my shift and traffic in Centerville is crazy in the morning!” Judy calls from the doorway while she is tying her white apron over her sky blue uniform and Alice turns away from her father and quickly jumps down the steps and into her mother’s car.

She is nervous about going to a new school but tries not to show it. Her mouth stays shut when it takes her mother three attempts to start their ancient car. Her hands stay clasped in her lap for the whole drive to Riverdale Middle School when she really wants to fiddle with the itchy collar of her blouse. She even manages a convincing smile and a cheerful wave when her mother drives away from the parking lot after dropping her off in the middle of a bunch of kids who are all moving around in large groups or at least in pairs as they make their way into the school building.

It takes Alice longer than expected to find the right classroom and the halls quickly empty out around her. She feels a little twang of fear rise in her chest but she pushes it back down. She doesn't want to be late on her first day and panicking won’t help her one bit.

When Alice finally walks into the right room, most of the seats are already occupied by other kids who are either chatting animatedly with their friends or curiously inspecting the classroom. She stops for a moment and considers her options. There is one free seat in the front row, dead center, between a red-headed girl with quite large front teeth in a fluffy pink sweater and a shy-looking, rather small boy who keeps glancing at the redhead.

No, not really her crowd.

The next free seat Alice sees is in the back row, next to a bunch of boys who are all transfixed by a pretty girl with long, silky brown hair. She is giggling about something somebody said while the girl in front of her (another redhead in an expensive-looking cherry-red velvet dress) is rolling her eyes at her and the boys. 

Not a very appealing choice either.

Finally, Alice spotts one last free seat at the far side of the room. The boy next to the empty seat looks vaguely familiar. He seems to be taller than most of the other kids, though he is trying to distract from his size by slouching in his chair, which only draws attention to his long legs that are awkwardly stretched out under the table. His hair is dark and he is staring at the blank table in front of him. Nobody takes notice of him, and if he is taking notice of his surroundings, he certainly isn’t show it. That is when Alice sees his old, worn leather backpack that looks very similar to her own. Between all the colorful bags the other kids brought with them, their bags look even sadder and more out of place. A tiny smile is tugging at her lips.

Yes. This is where she is meant to sit.

Alice raises her chin and makes her way over to the boy’s side. He ignores her, but when she clears her throat right next to him, he looks up at her with raised eyebrows. 

“Is this seat taken?”

He just looks at her for a few moments. Alice is doing her best not to squirm under his gaze as it wanders from her blue headband to the faded, slightly too big blouse and skirt and to the backpack she iss unsuccessfully trying to hide behind her back.

Finally, he says, “Don’t think so.”

“Mind if I sit here?” Alice adds, her patience already growing thin.

He makes some kind of shrug-like, dismissive gesture, so she drops her backpack next to the empty chair and sits down. They don’t speak, but that's fine with Alice. She is busy watching her classmates. By the time the teacher comes in, she is convinced that most of them are pretty boring.

Alice keeps a low profile for the rest of the day’s proceedings. During roll call, she listens carefully and tries to memorize the names of everyone around her. When the teacher says, “Forsythe Pendleton Jones II”, a few people start giggling all around the room, but fall quiet again when the dark-haired boy next to Alice raises his hand. It almost seems like people are a little afraid of him. Alice, however, sees him blush behind his curtain of dark hair after the teacher moved on to the next name on the list. For the second time that day, she smiles.  
*****

After school is over, Alice follows the stream of students back out the door. Most kids immediately take off with their parents or in small groups that head towards the nicer neighborhoods of the Northside. She watches her surroundings for a while. There are clouds coming in and the walk home suddenly seems awfully long.

“Are you coming or what?” a voice calls from her left. Alice turns her head and finds Forsythe Pendleton Jones II awkwardly standing a few feet away from her. They haven’t exchanged a single word since this morning and suddenly he is waiting for her?

“What do you mean, coming?”

“You live at Sunnyside. I do too. We have the same way home.” he says as if it is the most obvious thing in the world and turns around to leave.

“Yes, but why did you wait for me?” Alice’s brows are furrowed in confusion and she is still rooted to the spot.

The Jones boy rolls his eyes. “You’re a girl. Little girls shouldn’t walk around alone on the Southside. Now come on!”

“I don’t need you to walk me home and I am NOT a little girl!” Alice spits, “Now go!”

He looks almost amused at her outburst. “Can’t. The boys at Sunnyside say have to we take care of our own. And we are practically neighbors, so you’ll have to walk with me anyway.”

Alice is still fuming over being called a little girl, but he is right about the last part, so she begrudgingly starts walking.

When she hears him mutter, “Wasn’t so hard, was it?” under his breath, she shoots him a glare and they walk in silence for the next five minutes.

*****

“What does that even mean, ‘We take care of our own’? Who is we and what do they mean by ‘our own’?” Alice finally bursts out when they are crossing the train tracks. 

Her companion remains silent.

“Hey, can you even hear me? Forsythe Pendleton? By the way, is that what people call you? That’s pretty ridiculous, you know? Who has a name like that?”

At this point, she actively wants to get a rise out of him. His stoic demeanor is driving her up the wall.

“It’s a Southside thing. I don’t really get it myself. But you’re from Sunnyside, so you’re kinda one of us, whether you like it or not. And you can just call me Jones. That’s what they all do.” he explains, his voice still gentle and calm.

Alice instantly feels guilty for her jabs at his name. “You know, Forsythe isn’t actually that bad…”

He chuckles. “Yes, it is.”

They fall silent again.

“You could get yourself a cool nickname, you know? People could call you FP or something.” Alice suggests after a few more minutes of walking.

“FP?” he suddenly looks at her with genuine interest.

Alice just shrugs. Her cheeks suddenly feel quite warm.

Finally, he smiles. “I like it. It sounds pretty cool.”

The heat in her cheeks gets to a point at which she iss sure that is was blushing, so she quickly changes topic.

“So, FP, why are you so much taller than everyone else in class? Are your parents insanely tall?”

“No. It’s because I’m a year older than you guys. I started school a year later.”

“Why? You don’t seem all that stupid.”

FP chuckles again. “Nah, I’m doing okay. I was going to go to elementary school like everyone else. Was enrolled and everything. But then I broke some bones and couldn’t go for a while. Eventually, they told my mom that it would be better to wait a year.”

Alice isn’t quite sure what to say. “Oh, that’s, I mean…” she tries, but FP brushes it off with a dismissive gesture and another smile.

“Got any more questions?” he says jokingly.

“What if I do?” she asks, carefully preparing to talk about something that has been bothering her for a while.

“Let’s hear it.”

“Why have we been walking in circles for ten minutes when the trailer park is right over there?”

The smile drops from FP’s face. He stops walking and turns away from her for a few seconds. Alice feels her stomach clench. She has obviously struck a nerve.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-“

He turns back to face her but still doesn’t meet her eyes. 

“Nah, it’s fine. I sometimes do that. It’s just… My father and I… Sometimes I like walking around better than going home.”

Alice thinks of coming home to the trailer, where her own father has undoubtedly passed out in his armchair by now. Her mother won’t be home until the evening and everything will be eerily quiet. 

“I think I understand” she finally admitts and their eyes meet. Alice smiles sadly and FP returns it. It strikes her that she is probably much closer to making a friend than she ever would have thought possible this very morning.

Seconds later it finally starts to rain and Alice and FP quickly make their way to their respective trailers.

“See you tomorrow?” FP calls from his door.

“Sure!” Alice shouts back.

But FP doesn’t show up for class on Tuesday and when he returns on Wednesday, he has a black eye and refuses to talk to her about it. Alice quickly realizes that she hasn’t actually understood before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking forever to update this story. I actually had a different chapter 2 planned, but somehow, that idea completely refused to work out. So I'm giving you what was originally meant to be chapter 3 and we'll just move along a little more quickly than originally planned. Hope you'll like it...

Alice furiously wipes away her tears when she hears him approach. She knows he is making all that noise on purpose. Usually, he is almost soundless when he moves, especially here on the soft ground in the woods at the southwestern end of the trailer park. At barely fourteen, FP is surprisingly graceful despite the fact that an early growth spurt left him with unproportionally long limbs and replaced childlike softness with sharp angles.

“Hey Allie”

She can tell that he is trying to sound like nothing is wrong and she appreciates it, even though he is doing a horrible job at it. He sits down next to her on their usual old tree trunk and graciously ignores her blotchy, tear-stained face.

“You forgot your books when you stormed out. They’re in my locker now.”

“Thanks” Alice says and clears her throat to mask the quiver in her voice, “Did Mr. Bundy say anything?”

“No. You’re basically the only one who even pretends to care about geography, so he let it slide. And he understands that…” FP trails off, “Well, he knows.”

“Yeah. Everyone does. Because Principal Greene basically announced it over the speakers”, she whispers tonelessly. 

She feels rather than sees FP wince next to her. They sit in silence for a few minutes. It is fall and the leaves around them are starting to turn yellow. Alice usually likes this time of year, but now it just seems like the first sign of a cold, dark winter in an even colder trailer and not enough money for heat.

She thinks of the small, sad pile of cash that she has hidden away in her room and how it is steadily shrinking, even though she tries not to notice it.

She thinks of her father, who has somehow managed to become even less capable of taking care of himself over the last few months. Who hardly reacts when she talks to him, apart from when she brings him his meals or tells him to shower every once in a while and starts to tear up and avert his eyes when he looks at her for longer than five seconds.

There is no need to tell FP any of this. Not because she’s told him before. Because he just knows.

_**A few months earlier**_

_She knows. She knows the moment she sees the grave face of the deputy who is waiting for her in the principal’s office. Principal Greene himself seems weirdly fidgety and helpless in the way he asks her to sit down and then paces behind his desk, unable to get the words out. Finally, the deputy sits down next to her and explains the situation in a calm, sympathetic voice._

_Alice is too numb to really listen to the details of the story, but he hits all the check marks that have been ricocheting in her head ever since she heard Principal Greene’s secretary summon her to the office in a strangely constricted voice._

_Accident._

_Drunk driver._

_Nothing anyone could have done._

_Her eyes are still dry and her head is still empty when the deputy drops her off at the trailer park. As Alice pulls the door shut behind her, everything is quiet. For a moment, she thinks that her father is not here, but when she rounds the corner, he is right there in his chair. When he turns to her, she sees the tears that are quietly streaming down his face and something within her breaks._

_“ _Dad_ ” The dry sob almost hurts her throat on the way out. Alice rushes over to her father, throws her arms around him and cries into his shoulder. His arms wrap around her and hold her close. For a moment, she feels a jolt of hope. Maybe this is what it takes to pull her dad out of his stupor. Maybe he will be strong for her. Maybe…_

_Somewhere in the back of her mind, she registers that her father’s body is trembling in her embrace. She lets go, sits back to see his face and her heart sinks._

_Bill Smith looks completely and entirely lost. His eyes are full of panic._

_“Oh child, what are we supposed to do?” he asks. Alice reaches for his hand. Maybe to comfort him. Maybe to comfort both of them, but her father pulls his hand away and starts to cry even more violently._

_Alice, knowing that she has just been dismissed, goes to her room. Her knees feel like they can barely support her but somehow, she makes it to her bed. She doesn’t know how long she stays there, but at some point, it gets dark, then light again, then dark again._

_One morning, Cathy Miller from next door is there. She sends Alice to the shower, helps her untangle her hair and offers to zip up the simple black dress she brought with her._

_The service is a whole new level of painful. There are hardly any people there, the priest does not know what to say about her mother, and her father… Her father is so drunk, he doesn’t even react to the handful of neighbors who offer him their condolences._

_Before the coffin is lowered into the ground, the priest awkwardly asks if anyone would like to say a few words. The silence that follows is deafening. It’s that kind of silence that has been swallowing Alice up at home in the trailer ever since that horrible day. It gets more and more overwhelming by the second but Alice knows that every attempt to break it just makes it feel more suffocating when it returns. The priest is still looking at everyone around him, almost pleadingly, but nobody speaks. Nobody has anything to say about her mother._

_Eventually, it is too much for Alice. She turns away from the open grave and runs, just runs blindly until her legs are numb and she can’t breathe. She is in the woods, on the bank of Sweetwater River. The water is gurgling, but apart from that, the silence, that damn silence is still around and threatens to suffocate her. So she screams. She screams and cries until the birds fly up from the trees around her and she slumps down into the grass from exhaustion._

_When she can finally breathe again, she hears a noise behind her and whirls around, only to find FP approaching her slowly. He is wearing a dark suit that is a minimum of three sizes too big on him._

_Tears are still streaming down her face. Alice can’t stop them, so she turns back around to look at the river. He sits down next to her. After a few seconds of hesitating, he wraps his arm around her shoulder. She instinctively flinches away from his touch but he keeps his arm firmly in place._

_It is too much. Alice’s last defenses break. She throws herself into his arms and lets him hold her while her whole body is shaking from her sobs._

_“It’s going to be okay, Allie. I promise, it’s all going to be okay”_

_His voice is shaking, but he sounds sure and that’s enough for the moment._

_******_

“Miss Rosenfield wants to publish my article in the school paper” Alice finally murmurs after a long period of silence and feels a new rush of tears finding their way onto her cheeks.

“And you stormed out of the building because you’re embarrassed that people will know how much of a stuck-up overachiever you really are? Sorry to have to break it to you, Allie, but they already know that.” FP quips and gently nudges her with his shoulder.

A wobbly laugh breaks through Alice’s quiet sobs.

“You’re such an idiot.”

FP smiles at her and she smiles a watery smile back at him. Then, he grows serious.

“Your mom would have been so proud of you.”

Alice flinches. Leave it to him to hit the nail on the head first try.

She sniffles. “I hate that she died before she had the chance…”

FP looks confused.

“To what? To be proud of you? Come on, Allie! She was! You know she was!”

Alice snorts. 

“Yeah, for what? Getting a phone call from the principal because I cut off a strand of Penelope Rotenberg’s hair and telling her it was for a voodoo doll? Or having to bring me to detention on the weekend for breaking Bobby Miller’s nose?”

She can see that FP is doing his best to stay serious.

“Your mom knew that you are a good kid! It’s not your fault if these Northsiders practically beg you to do stuff like that!”

Alice sighs.

“I just wish she could see this. You know that she wanted to be a journalist when she was younger. That way, at least somebody would be proud of me or care what I do.”

The tears are threatening to start falling again.

FP’s scoots closer and awkwardly reaches for her hand. When their eyes meet, she can see that he is nervous about something.

“I am proud of you, Allie. And I care what you do.”

She is transfixed by the strange look in his eyes, but she can’t tell what it is through the veil of tears that she still can’t seem to blink away. Another voice in her head is asking why he is so close, but she finds that she doesn’t really mind.

“That’s not what I meant. I know you care. But you’re not my parents. You don’t love me.”

She blinks again and meets FP’s gaze. Somehow, he is even closer now. She can feel his breath on her face and somewhere, deep under the overwhelming sadness, something stirs deep inside of her.

“Don’t I?” he whispers. Before Alice has a chance to comprehend what is happening, his lips brush against hers in the softest kiss. Her eyes flutter closed, but it’s over as quickly as it started. When her eyes open again, FP has scooted away from her and is watching a family of ducks at the edge of the river. Alice smiles when the four tiny ducklings follow their mother into the water.

A while later, when the sun is already low and there’s an orange glow to everything around them, she looks at FP again. He runs a hand through his hair in what she knows is a nervous gesture of his. She smiles at him and he smiles back, clearly relieved.

“Wanna go home?” he asks.

Alice sighs. Most of the heaviness that she has managed to push away for the past few hours returns.

“My mom says you can sleep at our trailer tonight. If you want to, I mean. My dad is out of town and I can sleep on the couch and you can take my bed. It’s really comfy. My bed, I mean…”

He is rambling and Alice stops him by placing her hand on his between them.

“I’d like that” she simply says.

He gives her another smile and helps her up.


End file.
